Pivotal Moments
by Soccer9208
Summary: Pivotal moments really do change the course of ones life in an instant. Gregory House had so far experienced two pivotal moments in his life.He however never expected to experience another pivotal moment of this magnitude.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first House fic, I hope you all really like it! This is something that has been brewing in my mind for a while and I just needed to get it out on paper! There is also a bit of a crossover between House and Joan of Arcadia, but it's really minor and barely exists. R and R

Oh and this story doesn't follow the time line in the show I kid of tweaked it a bit to fit my ideas a little better!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything House related, or Joan of Arcadia related either.

Pivotal moments really do change the course of ones life in an instant. Gregory House had so far experienced two pivotal moments in his life; his marriage to Stacy Brodie and the infarction. He however never expected to experience another pivotal moment of this magnitude.

July 7th 2002

Dr. Gregory House had just endured a long and very boring day at PPTH, the clinic was almost completely empty since it was July and no one was ever sick in the summer, and he currently had no cases to work on. So he had spent the majority of his day watching his soaps and playing with his game boy. He was extremely happy to be at home in his townhouse with his scotch watching T.V, even if there was nothing but stupid cop shows on. He flipped through the channels again as if that would change what was on three minutes ago. As he was flipping the phone rang.

"To get up or not to get up? That is the question." He said aloud to himself as he heard the phone ring for a second time.

He finally decided it must be important because no one ever called him at night unless it was important. So he got up as quickly as his leg would let him and hobbled over to the phone. He picked it up just before the answering machine turned on.

"House" he said praying it wasn't one of those annoying telemarketers.

"Is this Dr. Gregory House?" the man on the other line asked.

"Yes" he answered preparing to hang up if the next words out of this guy's mouth had anything to do with "an amazing once in a lifetime offer".

"This is Mr. Robert Cambridge, Stacy Warner's attorney" The man explained.

"Whatever it is I didn't have anything to do with it." Greg immediately defended himself.

"Oh, no that's not why I'm calling. I hate to be the one to tell you this but Stacy was killed last night in a fatal car accident." Mr. Cambridge replied very quietly.

Greg almost dropped the phone when he heard these words. He stepped back a little until he hit the wall. This wasn't possible.

"Oh god, no" Greg gasped into the phone softly on the verge of tears, as he slid down the wall into a seated position.

"I am very sorry sir,….." he paused, then continued " in Mrs. Warner's will it states that if anything were to happen to her you would become the legal guardian of the four children the two of you conceived. She decided it would be better for them to be with their biological father rather than Mr. Warner." Mr. Cambridge explained very nonchalantly.

Greg had to shake his head a little to process what this man was telling him.

"Right" he answered shakily.

He knew this, Stacy had told him, but it never occurred to him that he actually might out live her and have to become a father all over again.

"Where are they now?" Greg asked, still unable to think straight, which was a bad sign in his case.

"They are staying with her sister Helen and her husband Will. Helen wanted to bring the kids to you at your office tomorrow." Mr. Cambridge answered.

"Oh, yeah that should be fine. Just have her call before she gets there." Greg asked surprised that this was all being dumped on him so fast.

"I will sir, again I am very sorry. Have a nice night. Good bye." Mr. Cambridge replied and then hung up.

Greg turned the phone off but remained sitting on the floor for a while. His mind began to spin and he was drawn into his memory.

**_Flashback 3 years ago._**

**_August 7th 1999_**

Greg lay in the hospital bed; it had been three days since the surgery that Stacy had consented to, and he was still overwhelmingly angry at her for it, not to mention in extreme pain.

"How could she have done this? I am a doctor; I knew what I was talking about. This is all her fault." He thought angrily to himself as he lay there.

He wasn't sure if he could stand to see her face every morning and be reminded of who caused him all this pain. He began to drift off as the pain medication began to kick in.

The next day when Stacy had come back to be with him, he couldn't hold his feelings back any longer, so he exploded.

"We need to talk." He started. "I'm not sure I want to be with you anymore, how can I trust you after you completely ignored what I said and let them do the surgery anyway! I knew what I was doing Stacy!" he was yelling at this point.

"I was only doing what the doctors thought was best for you! I didn't want to see you suffer anymore!" Stacy answered loudly holding his hand.

"I am a doctor! I don't want to remain in this relationship; I don't want my kids to see me like this either! They don't deserve to have a cripple as a father!" Greg shouted at her.

"Greg, don't do this I love you, and the kids will love you no matter what" Stacy begged desperately.

"I want a divorce." He stated quietly "You can have total custody of the kids, tell them I love them but I just can't let them see me like this." He said turning his head to face in the other direction.

Stacy stared at him for a while, surprised by what just happened. Then she stood up, kissed him gently on the cheek and left the room.

_**End Flashback**_

Greg was still sitting on the floor with the phone in his hands, how could he have done that to her. He had left her with three kids and a fourth one on the way, she had never even asked for any child support. She was such a wonderful woman, at least that's what he thought before she took away the use of his leg. He knew that what he had said then sounded childish, but he was angry and in pain. He still believed that what she had done was wrong, but he couldn't imagine what it must have been like to live with all that guilt. He couldn't imagine what she had gone through and what the kids had gone through.

After he had been sitting on the floor for a while his leg began to ache again. He pulled himself up using the edge of the coffee table as support. He returned to phone to its hook and then went over to his desk which was hidden under mounds of papers and books. He opened one of the desk drawers and pulled out an old shoe box. He took the box over to the couch and sat down. He sat there a while with the box on his lap and then finally decided to open it. He took the lid off and picked up the envelope lying on the top. He took a deep breath and then opened it pulling a letter out. He unfolded the letter and began to read:

**October 30th 1999**

Dear Greg,

I know you said you didn't want me to be a part of your life anymore and that you didn't want to see the kids anymore but I know only the first part of that was really true. I decided that you might want to hear about what your kids are up to even if you don't want to be around them. So I am going to be sending you a letter once or twice a month with pictures of the kids just to keep you updated.

So why don't we start now. Well the biggest thing to happen since you left is I gave birth to our fourth child, a beautiful girl. She definitely has your eyes; her name is Abigail Lynn House (yes they are all going to keep your name).I picked Lynn because that was the name you had chosen and Abigail was the name I had chosen. She was born on September 12th at 7:09 pm, and weighed 7lbs. 6oz. Zach still hasn't gotten used to another girl in the house but he'll warm up to her soon enough. Dani won her soccer camp championships in the end of August, she was thrilled. Maddie is just being herself right now, still doing ballet. Zach just turned four and just started pre-school, he is very excited. He also just joined the pee-wee soccer team and Dani taught him how to skateboard too. Oh and for Halloween Dani will be Mia Hamm, Maddie is going to be a princess and Zach is going as a skateboarder.

We all miss you around here. The kids aren't mad at you, don't worry. Dani understands, Maddie is a little confused and Zach really has no idea what's going on. Well if you ever feel inclined to call you have our number.

Love,

Stacy

He refolded the letter and placed it back in the envelope. He laid the envelope next to him on the couch and looked at the shoe box, which was filled to the top with pictures. Stacy had really done a good job of keeping him updated. He had never really looked at the pictures, he usually glanced at them and read the letter they cam with. It hurt too much to look at them, but he decided tonight was a better time than any to really look at them.


	2. Chapter 2

He had tried to keep them in the order that Stacy had sent them, but that had failed after the first year. He was never very good at keeping anything organized.

He picked up the first picture out of the box. It was the most recent picture he had received. It was taken on the Fourth of July. All four of his kids were sitting together on the front steps of their porch smiling brightly for their mother. He looked at each child carefully studying their every feature as though they were one of his cases.

His eyes first fell on his eldest, her name was Danielle Alexis, and she had always been his shinning star. Danielle had beautiful straight light brown hair, which she usually pulled back into a ponytail, and dazzling blue eyes to match his. She was involved in every sport you could imagine and not only did she love to play them she was amazing at them as well. He remembered teaching her how to play lacrosse; he could still picture her holding her miniature lacrosse stick and trying to cradle the ball like he showed her. Everyone always told him that the bond between a daughter and her father was special but he felt that the bond that they had shared was different from all the other father daughter relationships out there. There was something that had instantaneously clicked between the two from the start. Maybe it was their common love of sports or their stubborn and sarcastic personalities that made their relationship more than just a father daughter thing. She looked happy and that made him happy even though he had been torn apart about leaving her and her siblings at such a young age, he could tell she had made it through the storm just to be hit by a tidal wave three years later. His eyes wandered to his second child sitting next to Danielle, her name was Madeline Olivia, but they had always called her Maddie. She had long wavy dark brown almost black hair and deep brown eyes just like her mothers. Madeline couldn't be any different from her sister if she tried. Danielle was more of a tomboy sports fanatic, but Maddie was an all around princess with the drama queen temper to match. With Maddie everything was pink or purple with sparkles and feathers. She adored ballet, tap and jazz, she dreamed of dancing on Broadway or being in movies. Although House and Maddie had never clicked like he and Danielle had she was still his little princess and he could still remember the days when he was forced to play Barbies or dress up and even hair salon. And no matter how much it bothered him to play with dolls and makeup he would do it just for her. After studying her for sometime he moved to his third child, his only son Zachary Tyler. Zach had the same bright blue eyes and light brown hair as his sister did. Zach was a typical boy he loved sports, especially skateboarding and lacrosse; he loved video games, and really had a knack for causing trouble. Zach had only been three when House and Stacy had split so he never really got to know Zach very well, he was almost six now and was starting to lose his baby teeth. His eyes finally fell on his last kid, another beautiful girl. Her name was Abigail Lynn, he had never met her before but he had heard about her through Stacy's letters. Abby had dirty blonde hair with a little bit of a curl at the end and of course she had his blue eyes as well. She was just beautiful and he couldn't help but feel guilty for not being there to help raise her.

He continued to look through the rest of the pictures until the dull ache in his leg grew to a pestering pain. He laid the pictures back in the box and put the lid back on. He slowly pushed himself up from the couch and grabbed his cane from the side of the couch. He slowly hobbled down the hall into the bathroom and hung the cane on the door knob. He leaned heavily on the sink examining himself in the mirror. He noticed the fine wrinkles around his eyes and on his forehead. He was getting older and now he wasn't so sure he could handle four kids, but he knew he had to. He went to the bathroom and washed his hands. As he left the bathroom he grabbed his cane and then went out to his den, swallowed a Vicodin and grabbed the phone. He sat on the couch and punched in Wilson's number. It rang once, twice…. And Wilson picked up.

"Hello" Wilson answered sleepily into the phone.

"Oh good you're awake, I was afraid it was way past your bedtime" House answered sarcastically.

"Yeah, well I was always a rebel, never went to bed when I was supposed to." Wilson joked.

"I need you to come over here, like now" House said losing the sarcastic tone in his voice.

"Can't it wait till tomorrow? I'm exhausted and now you've interrupted my sleep." Wilson somewhat whined into the phone.

"No, it can't I need to talk to you now in person." House answered quickly.

"Fine, I'm coming, but you're dealing with Julie tomorrow when she wants to know where I snuck off to in the middle of the night. Bye" Wilson answered annoyed and then hung up the phone.

House smiled slightly and then hung up the phone. He sat silently on the couch, his head rested on the handle of his cane. He contemplated everything that had happened over the last two hours while he waited for Wilson. Finally he heard the familiar slow knock on his door. He stood slowly and walked over to the door and opened it stepping aside to let Wilson in.

"I wasn't sure if this would be a beer conversation or not so I picked up a case, and let me just say this better be important." Wilson said quickly handing House the case. He walked over to the couch and sat down expectantly waiting to hear what House needed to say.

House looked at the case of beer and took it to the fridge, and then he came back to the den and sat down in his favorite armchair. He tapped his cane nervously on the floor several times and then began to speak.

"I got a call from Stacy's lawyer tonight" he started quietly staring at the floor.

"What did you do this time, I think we might need those beers" Wilson asked sarcastically as he stood to get the beers.

"I didn't do anything, he called to tell me that Stacy….died in a car accident last night" House said quietly still staring at the floor. Wilson stopped suddenly on his way to the kitchen. He turned around and sat back down on the couch.

"Oh my god, House." He said shakily.

"Yeah, I know, and that's just the beginning" House responded looking up at Wilson. Wilson looked expectantly at House waiting for him to continue. "I was apparently in Stacy's will as the guardian of our four kids" House finally continued now looking into Wilson's eyes with evidence of fear lingering in his own.

"You're kidding; did you know she did that?" Wilson asked.

"Yeah, but I never thought it would actually happen, I mean she was always the health nut, eating all the vegetables, never smoked, exercised, and she was never sick. I never expected her to go before me." House explained.

"True, so what are you going to do? You're not much of a kid friendly guy right now." Wilson asked shyly.

"Hey, that's not true, I love kids" House quickly defended himself.

"House, just yesterday you yelled at a kid for sticking cheerios up his nose. You're always complaining about how whiny they are or how loud they are, how are you going to handle four of them." Wilson joked.

"Mine are different. They're much smarter, so they won't stick anything up their noses and if I know Stacy they are very well behaved kids. The first two were complete angels before I left I'm sure they're even more angelic now." House answered defensively.

"Fine, but where are they going to sleep, you only have one spare room and it's pretty small." Wilson asked

"We'll have to find a new place, maybe even a real house. Don't worry I won't move too far away, so we can still see each other." House assured him sarcastically.

"Oh I was worried for a second there, thought I might lose my bestest friend." Wilson joked. "So when are they coming?" he asked.

"Tomorrow, they are being dropped off at the hospital" House answered quickly looking back at the floor.

"Wow that was fast." Wilson answered.

"Yeah, don't remind me. So the second reason I asked you to come here was to help me clean" House smiled standing up slowly. "I can't let my kids see me living like this." He joked.

"Oh goody, just what I want to do at 1 in the morning" Wilson answered sarcastically. "I'll start out here, you do the guest room and your room" Wilson told him sighing heavily as he began to clear off the coffee table.

House headed into the guest room and began picking up his magazines, books, and other things. It took him about half an hour to finish the guest room. Then he moved onto his own room, which was actually cleaner than the guest room. He always kept his room rather clean; he hated waking up to a messy room. After he finished his room he went back into the den. When he walked in he almost didn't recognize it. There were no stacks of magazines and books; there were no more ashtrays or bottles of scotch lying around. Wilson had done well. He went into the kitchen where he heard water running. Wilson was busy washing dishes at the sink. House could tell he had already organized the cabinets and cleaned out the fridge.

"Thanks for doing this Wilson." House said quietly as he hung his cane on the counter and began to dry the dishes Wilson had already washed.

"Yeah, well you owe me" Wilson joked.

After they had finished cleaning up every room in House's small apartment they made up the pull out couch and the guest bed. They put extra towels in the bathroom and finally after they were both satisfied with their work they collapsed in exhaustion in the den.

Around seven a.m. House's leg began to ache again probably from the night he spent sleeping in his armchair. He slowly turned his head to see if Wilson had gone home, but he was still there. He pulled himself up from the chair and hobbled into the bathroom to take a shower and a Vicodin. When he returned to the den now dressed, he went over to Wilson and began poking him in the shoulder with his cane.

"Wilson, wake up, you're gonna be late, and believe me Cuddy doesn't like that" House said jokingly as he continued to poke at him.

"Ya know either you like me cranky or you just get a kick out of waking me up when I have no desire to be awake." Wilson replied annoyed as he sat up slowly on the couch.

"Hey I was just doing you a favor, unless of course you want Cuddy on your back all day, it would be nice though, I mean she might leave me alone all day. Changed my mind you can go back to sleep. Just be sure you come in about an hour after I get there." House joked as he walked to the door to grab his helmet and backpack. "Lock the door when you leave" House said as he walked out the door.

He made his way to his bike and climbed on. He arrived at PPTH in less than fifteen minutes. He parked his bike and went into the building as he was walking to the elevator he saw Cuddy on the phone with a file in hand. He knew she was probably waiting to bombard him with another case, but today was not the day he wanted to deal with any patients no matter how sick they were. Unfortunately Cuddy was making her way over to him. He anxiously pushed the button several times.

"Oh good Dr. House, I have a new case for you." Cuddy said cheerfully opening the file ready to read off the symptoms.

"I'm not in much of a diagnosing mood today, maybe tomorrow." He answered sarcastically.

"Yeah, well this patient may be dead tomorrow." She answered sounding rather annoyed. "Twelve year old male, spastic twitching in the legs, seizures, and labored breathing." She rattled off the symptoms and then handed the file to House as he stepped into the elevator. He flipped through the file as the elevator carried him to the fourth floor.

He stepped out of the elevator and headed straight for his office. He walked into the conference room and threw the file on the table.

"Twelve year old male, breathing problems, leg spasms, and seizures. Differential diagnosis, people." He said as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Could be childhood epilepsy" Foreman offered.

House began writing the symptoms on the board. He put the pen down and then headed for his office.

"I think you can it from here. So if I were you I would start with an MRI, CT scan. Draw some blood, you know the usual. Good luck, and don't bother me." He said as he went into his office, closing the blinds behind him.

Cameron, Chase and Foreman all looked at each other with puzzled expressions. Chase and Foreman left to schedule the MRI and CT scan and to draw the blood, but Cameron stayed behind.

She walked over to the door to House's office and slowly pushed it open. She walked in and saw House lying on the floor with his earphones on and his iPod lying next to him and his leg propped up on his chair with his eyes closed. She walked over to him and turned off his ipod. His eyes flashed open quickly. He sighed and pulled the earphones out of his ears. He propped himself up on his elbows and stared up at her.

"I'm guessing you want to know what's wrong. Why doesn't that surprise me? I said not to bother me but you just can't stand seeing anyone suffer and not be able to fix it." He said sarcastically.

"Well yeah, I've seen you mad and cranky before, but this is different. You've never locked yourself in your office with your ipod like a six year old." She explained exasperated by his sarcasm.

"Is this what six year olds do? Good to know" He joked pulling his leg off the chair. "Why are you so nosy? I don't want to be bothered, why don't you understand this simple concept?" he asked cringing at the pain as he moved his leg to the floor.

"Because something is obviously bothering you, and sometimes it actually helps people to talk about things." She answered becoming rather annoyed by his harsh remarks.

"Fine if I tell you will you leave me alone?" he asked only wanting to be left alone.

"Sure" she answered quickly.

"My ex-wife died two nights ago in a car accident and I am now the legal guardian of my four kids. There now you know and now you can go help Chase and Foreman gather tests." He answered nonchalantly. Cameron paused and was about to say something but decided against it and walked out of the office watching House lay back down on the floor and placing his earphones back in his ears.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Okay I know its been like two months since I have updated, I promise I will try not to let that happen again! Well here it goes hope you enjoy it!

House was still lying on the floor when Cameron, Chase and Foreman returned from running the tests on their new patient an hour later.

"What's up with him today? Usually he's all over us when we get a new case." Foreman commented as the three of them walked past his office into the conference room. Chase and Forman both looked at Cameron expectantly.

"What?" she asked confused.

"Oh come on, are you saying you haven't asked him what's wrong! That doesn't sound like you at all." Chase teased.

"So maybe I did ask him, but I don't think he wants it spread all over the hospital." She stated walking over to the white board to write down the newest symptoms on it.

"Come on we'll find out eventually whether you tell us or not." Foreman pleaded.

"Well then you don't need me to tell you then do you?" Cameron snapped back leaving the office quickly.

House was enjoying his peaceful morning, surprised that Cuddy hadn't come to bother him about the clinic yet, not that this was a bad thing. Just as the final song on his ipod ended he heard the phone begin to ring.

"Great" he thought to himself as he began to pull himself up from the floor. He grabbed the phone off the hook by the third ring and answered quickly.

"House" he grunted into the phone as he sat down in his chair.

"Dr. House this is Melanie from downstairs, a woman named Helen just called to inform you that she will be arriving in about 15 minutes." The woman on the other line answered.

"Oh, okay thank you. Just send her up when she gets here please." He said quickly and then hung the phone up before Melanie had a chance to answer. He leaned back in his chair placing his hands over his face. He couldn't believe this was actually happening, last night all seemed like a horrible nightmare, but now it was all sinking in and becoming reality. He stayed in this position for what felt like hours until he heard a quiet tap on the glass that made him look up quickly. When he looked at the glass of his office he saw a kind faced woman standing on the other side with four very tired and frightened children next to her. He took a deep breath and then waved them in.

Helen, his ex-sister-in-law opened the door while holding the smallest child's hand and leading the other three into the room.

"Hi Greg" she said kindly letting go of the little girls hand to give him a hug.

"Hi Helen, how have you been?" He asked returning the hug.

"Well we've been better" she said with a slight smile on her face.

"Hey guys" he said kindly walking over to his four kids who were standing next to Helen.

"Hey Daddy" Danielle and Maddie answered in unison moving to give him a hug.

"I missed you so much" he answered kissing the tops of their heads returning the hugs. "Hey Zach, how are ya buddy?" he asked looking to his only son.

"Good" Zach answered quietly looking up at Greg.

"Abby, this is your daddy" Helen said bending down to look the small girl in the eyes. "You're going to go live with him, with Dani, Maddie and Zach okay?" she explained gently holding her small hands in hers.

Abby looked from Helen to House confused by all that was happening. "You're not coming?" she asked innocently.

"No Abby, I have to go back to take care of Kevin, Joan and Luke. Don't worry daddy will take care of you because he loves you so much." Helen reassured her gently.

"Okay" Abby answered softly letting go of Helen's hands.

"Okay Greg, these are the keys to Stacy's van, its parked in the parking garage. All of their bags are in there; the rest of their stuff is still at Mark's place. Here is his number just call whenever you're ready to pick it up. I also wrote out their schedules for the rest of the summer, and all of their important information is in this folder. If you ever have any questions or need any help don't hesitate to call, Dani has our number. Okay I think that's all. Bye guys I love you so much. I'm sure we'll see you soon." Helen explained quickly. After giving the four of them hugs and kisses she left the office quickly leaving Greg alone with his four kids for the first time.

"Well okay then. Why don't you guys sit here for a second while I go talk to those guys in the other room." He told them as he went to open the door to the conference room.

"It's been a second" Zach said with a sly smile on his face.

"Fine then three minutes" House answered quickly.

He walked into the conference room where he found Chase and Foreman staring blankly at what they just saw occur in their bosses office.

"By the looks on your face I'm guessing you're a little confused." He said looking at his two ducklings. "I only have three minutes, because the time keeper is sitting in there apparently. Those are my four kids, Dani, Maddie, Zach and Abby. They are from my marriage to a woman named Stacy who recently passed away, so now the kids are coming to live with me. Got that? Good, no further discussion needed." He explained quickly leaving to go back to his office.

Foreman and Chase both stared blankly at the door that House had just exited through.

"He's kidding right?" Foreman asked still sounding bewildered.

"I don't think he was" Chase answered quickly.


End file.
